These Butter Tart Cupcakes taste like butter tarts in cupcake form! With a gooey filling, topped with Maple Brown Butter Whipped Cream Frosting, more raisins and a slice of butter tart, they are the perfect dessert for the holidays. And since everyone doesn't love raisins, you can easily substitute pecans.
Butter tarts are especially popular at Christmas, especially for us Canadians. This recipe was inspired by my Grandma's butter tarts on this site. If you're a butter tart fan, you'll love this delicious cupcake!
🍒Reader Review
"Love, love, love these cupcakes! And the topping is to die for! If you closed your eyes, you would think it was an actual butter tart!"⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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And if you can't get enough of that butter tart flavor, try my Butter Tart Slice (no tart shells required!)
🥘Ingredient Notes
You will need the following ingredients to make these butter tart cupcakes:
- Sifted cake and pastry flour. I use this flour because it's lower in protein (also called soft flour) and gives these cupcakes a fluffy and tender texture .
- Unsalted butter. I prefer to use unsalted butter so I can control the salt in my baking.
- Whipping cream. You will need to use whipping cream that is 33-36% fat.
- Butter extract/flavoring. Butter extract enhances the buttery flavor in these cupcakes.
- Recipe for butter tart filling. *See NOTES in recipe card for this filling
- Frosting .*I use Maple Brown Butter Whipped Cream Frosting (*See NOTES in recipe card)
📖Variations & Substitutions
- Frosting - the Maple Brown Butter Frosting pair perfectly with this recipe, but you can use another type of frosting such as plain whipped cream frosting, whipped cream buttercream, white chocolate whipped cream frosting
- Raisins - you can substitute pecans for raisins
- Cake and Pastry flour - you can substitute all- purpose flour, but it will have a chewier texture. I recommend using the substitution with cornstarch (see TOP TIP below)
- Milk - you could use 2% milk instead of 1%.
- Butter tarts- you can garnish with mini tarts instead of a slice of butter tart and use either homemade or store-bought
Top Tip
Replace cake and pastry flour with all-purpose flour: Substitute 1 cup of pastry flour for 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 1 tablespoon of all- purpose flour removed, Then add 2 tbsps of corn starch.
🔪How to Make Butter Tart Cupcakes
Prep:
- Make butter tart filling on stovetop and set aside to cool while making muffins. * You can also make this a day (or several days) in advance. You could even make it up to 3 months in advance and freeze it in an airtight container.
- Line muffin tins with muffin liners. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (162 degrees C)
In a small bowl, mix vinegar into milk and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, stir flour and baking powder and baking soda together – set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric hand mixer on medium speed or in the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment.
Then beat in butter flavour, eggs and whipping cream.
Mix flour mixture into wet and stir until combined with wooden spoon.
Mix in milk with vinegar with wooden spoon, then add raisins or pecans.
Spoon batter into muffin liners to ⅔ - ¾ full, depending on how big you like your cupcakes.
Bake at 325 degrees F/162 degrees C for 20- 25 minutes (23 minutes was perfect for me) or until cake tester comes out clean.
Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Fill cupcakes will butter tart filling * you can use a pastry bag and a #230 Bismarck piping tip (or cut out a section of cupcake and fill it that way) *See VIDEO
Frost cupcakes with pastry bag and1M tip. You can use the Maple Brown Butter Whipped Cream frosting (recipe in NOTES) or see Variations and Substitutions below
Garnish with a piece of a butter tart (I cut the butter tarts into 6 pieces) and place raisins around butter tart slice.
🎥 Video
If you're new to filling cupcakes, check out this video: How to fill a cupcake
If you are not sure how to brown butter (for the Maple Brown Butter Whipped Cream Frosting), check out this video: How to brown butter
🥗 What to eat with Butter tart Cupcakes
Butter tart cupcakes make a great snack or dessert with a holiday meal such as Picnic Ham, Baked Chicken Cacciatore, Air Fyer Roast Chicken or Baked Beef Cannelloni (shown).
🌡️Storage
Store cupcakes in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
These cupcakes can be frozen in an airtight container BEFORE filling and frosting, for up to 3 months. Fully defrost at room temperature prior to filling and frosting.
👪 Serving Size
This recipe makes 18-20 servings depending on the size of your cupcakes. However, you can half, double or triple the recipe by clicking on the serving number and selecting the number of servings you'd like. The ingredient quantities will automatically adjust.
❔ Recipe FAQ's
Butter Tart filling is comprised of eggs, cream, brown sugar, vanilla and most often raisins, although pecan can be substituted.
The secret to moist cupcakes is using some kind of fat, using room temperature eggs and butter so the ingredients incorporate better and not overmixing (mix at low speed).
Inspiration from classic desserts is a great way to create new cupcake favorites. Just like these Butter Tart Cupcakes capture that iconic flavour, my Tiramisu Cupcakes Recipe successfully translates the essence of the Italian classic into cupcake form.
But if you're looking for yet another way to enjoy butter tarts, you'll love these Butter Tart Cupcakes!
More Butter Tart Recipes
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📋 Butter tart Cupcakes recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups pre-sifted cake and pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup whipped cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 tblsp butter flavour
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 recipe for butter tart filling (see NOTES)
- 1 recipe for Maple Brown Butter Whipped Cream Frosting (see NOTES)
Instructions
- PREP: Make butter tart filling on stovetop and set aside to cool while making muffins. * You can also make this a day (or several days) in advance. You could even make it up to 3 months in advance and freeze it.Line muffin tins with muffin liners. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (162 degrees C)
- Mix vinegar into milk and set aside.
- Mix flour and baking powder and baking soda together – set aside
- Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer.
- Then beat in butter flavour, eggs and whipping cream.
- Mix dry ingredients into wet and stir until combined (with wooden spoon).
- Mix in milk with vinegar with wooden spoon, the add raisins or pecans.
- Fill muffins liners to ⅔ - ¾ full, depending on how big you like your cupcakes.
- Bake at 325 degrees F/162 degrees C for 20- 25 minutes (23 minutes was perfect for me).
- Fill cupcakes will butter tart filling * you can use a pastry bag and a #230 Bismarck piping tip (or cut out a section of cupcake) *See VIDEO
- Frost cupcakes with IM tip.
- Garnish cupcakes with a slice/piece of butter tart (I cut the butter tarts into 6 pieces) and raisins.
Notes
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan on stove top, add vanilla and whipping cream, heat, then add butter.
- In a medium bowl, combine egg, and brown sugar.
- Add egg mixture to warm cream mixture and simmer on low, then add vinegar and cornstarch.
- Keep whisking until thickened on med-low heat for about 12-15 minutes. It should be the consistency of thick gravy. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. After 10 minutes, refrigerate. It will thicken further as it cools
- Freeze mixing bowl and attachment for at least 15 minutes.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and continue to cook until butter turns a light golden brown and has a nutty fragrance (see VIDEO in post if you are not sure how to brown butter)
- Remove from heat, cool and add maple extract then cool to room temperature. *be careful adding the extract - if the butter is too hot it will splatter!
- Beat the butter with the powdered sugar and 2 Tblsp of the whipping cream. Set aside
- Whip cream until slightly thickened (soft peaks). While beating slowly, gradually add piping gel to whipped cream mixture. Whip at high speed until stiff peaks form
- Fold butter mixture into whipped cream mixture and whip for 15 seconds or so longer
Rachel
I loved the taste of the buttertart filling, but I simmered it for 12 minutes and it overcooked. It basically got thick like gravy as soon as I added the cornstarch and vinegar. Just wondering how long I can simmer the eggs in the mixture before they are cooked and safe to eat?
Terri Gilson
Hi Rachel,
Sorry you had trouble with the recipe. Are you cooking on a gas stove or electric? Maybe your heat was too high? Typically simmer is 2-4 on a stove, but it depends on your stove. I usually simmer on 3. You should remove it as soon as it's thick enough. Eggs typically don't take that long to cook. To ensure food safety, experts recommend cooking eggs to a minimum temperature of 160°F maintained for 2 minutes or an end temperature of 165°F. So, to be on the safe side, you may want to use your instant read thermometer to ensure the mixture is at that temperature.
I hope you try it again and I'd love to hear how it went!
Take care,
Terri
Cheryl
Hi there! I’m trying these cupcakes and making the butter tart filling at the moment. In the directions for the filling, you say near the end “…you can add the raisins here…” but there are no raisins in the recipe! I’m using pecans instead of raisins so what quantity should I use? Half a cup?
Terri Gilson
Hi Cheryl,
Sorry for the confusion! That should not be there -it was in the original filling for actual butter tarts and I forgot to take it out. I just removed it. You can't have anything in the filling or it would be too difficult to fill the cupcakes. Just put the pecans in the cupcakes instead of raisins, if that's your preference.
Thanks!
Terri
Tammy Forster
Love, love, love these cupcakes! and the topping is to die for! If you closed your eyes, you would think it was an actual butter tart!